Endemic
by affTwill
Summary: Once their eyes turn black, there's no hope, but one trainer won't give up on her team.


Elise ran through sporadic beams of late afternoon sunlight. Thin branches whipped red lines across her face, each root, rock and hole tried to twist her ankle, but she ran, each stride risking everything. The wouldn't take Lilligant from her. She wouldn't let them. Sweat glued her green shirt uncomfortably to her back, and wild strands of brown hair clung to her face and neck. Mistralton lay behind, but not far enough.

Motion ahead caught her eye, and a Zangoose leapt from behind a dense clump of thin trees. She grasped at her hip for a pokeball and threw it. "Janus!" she yelled to her Kirlia, who appeared in a red light.

Without hesitation, blue light launched from Kirlia's hands. One bolt struck Zangoose in the chest, the other scattered dirt and leaves at the pokemon's feet. Zangoose stumbled, and after a quick glance, fled back into the forest.

Janus didn't give chase. "You should always keep at least one of us by your side. What if you hadn't been quick enough?" His melodic voice chimed in her mind, the calm of it at odds with her frantic breath.

Elise lowered herself to sit at the base of a wide, rough-barked tree, panting. "I don't know what to do." Sweat slid down her face, and she wiped her forehead with a shaking hand.

Janus walked to her side. "What happened? You always keep us out when you travel, and we were barely in Mistralton for a few hours. You said we'd be taking a break there."

"I'm sorry," she whispered, but couldn't look at her pokemon. "I panicked." The C-Gear in her pocket vibrated. Eight new messages: _Elise, it's urg..._ She shut the screen off without opening the message and blinked away a tear. Sweat slicked her skin, but Janus sat beside her and hugged her arm. Not even the awkward little psychic type could get her to smile.

"I'm sorry," she repeated, and returned Janus to his ball before using the tree to help her back to her feet. Those eight messages meant that Josh had told the League, and they'd be looking for her. She threw the C-Gear to the ground and released another pokemon.

A Charmeleon stretched before her, its predatory eyes sweeping the surroundings. She'd won the exotic pokemon in a tournament a few months ago, and it still barely listened to her.

Elise pointed to the C-Gear. "Charmeleon, I want you to burn that, hot as you can."

Charmeleon didn't balk this time. Flames roared from it's mouth, hot enough to force Elise back. Small embers danced through the once soggy leaves, and where the C-Gear had lain, only a puddle of molten plastic and twisted metal remained. An acrid smoke rose from the destroyed device.

"Thank you." She returned her pokemon. With one last touch to Lilligant's pokeball, Elise changed direction and continued to run.

Elise didn't even make it to dusk. While the thick forest blocked out most of the sunlight, by the time light began to fade, her legs refused to continue. It felt as if Charmeleon's flames filled her chest.

A small patch of thick bushes caught her eye, and she stumbled towards them. She released Janus and Charmeleon. "Could you guys check that thicket? We're resting here for the night."

Janus gave her a hurt look, but cleared the area. "Charmeleon wants to know what we're doing out here as well."

"We're trying something new. A new training method." Fatigue and hunger clouded her mind, and while her pokemon wouldn't believe the pathetic lie, she couldn't tell them the truth, not yet. Her pack slid from slumped shoulders and she pulled out a small meal for one, and split it between them. There hadn't been time to replenish her supplies.

"I need you guys to keep watch tonight. You can take turns if you need. Human or pokemon, wake me immediately. Please trust me." She handed Janus Tranquill's pokeball. Her Tranquill might not be as good at keeping watch in the dark, but could watch from the branches above.

Charmeleon snorted, but Janus looked up at her. "Was it something we did? Did I mess up again?"

In her exhaustion, she smiled. "No, you didn't do anything wrong. Please trust me for now. It's for the best for all of us." She kissed Janus on the forehead, ruffled his hair gently. Her only pokemon to have a name, and only because he'd said he wanted one. Without another thought, she passed out on a thin blanket despite the gravely soil.

* * *

The morning felt like many others she'd shared with her pokemon, Janus curled up against her side. But without Lilligant. A dull ache spread through her back from sleeping on the ground, and she could already feel the tightness in her legs. Sleeping in her sweaty, grimly clothing left her feeling gross, but it couldn't be helped. She had to keep going.

"Janus, wake up." Elise stroked the sleeping pokemon's green hair.

Janus rubbed his eyes. "Nothing bothered us last night. You should still keep us out though."

"I will. I need to return you for a minute though."

Charmeleon walked into view, the flame at the tip of his tail burning with a little less vibrance than usual. She shouldn't push them to be awake all night, but she didn't have a choice. If the authorities caught up with them, her pokemon would likely be killed. She would too, if she were lucky.

Elise squeezed her eyes shut before returning her two pokemon and reaching for the last pokeball at her belt. Lilligant, her first pokemon and best friend since the beginning. Elise pressed the release button.

Lilligant beamed up at Elise, the flower atop her head big and vibrant, and as Elise knelt to hug her pokemon. She could smell the gentle, floral aroma she'd grown accustomed to over the years.

Elise fought to keep the tears from her eyes. "How are you feeling?" She released Lilligant from the embrace.

Lilligant placed a leafy hand under her mouth before giving a non-committal shrug. "Lilll."

Elise looked into her pokemon's bright red eyes, eyes that now contained thin black veins. It had grown worse since she'd noticed back in the pokemon center, where someone else had noticed as well.

She hugged her pokemon again. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I don't know how it happened." Tear splashed against the plump red petals atop Lilligant's head. They'd been together for over eight years now. Her father had given the Petilil to her for her tenth birthday. On her sixteenth, she received a sun stone.

"I love you," Elise whispered, and held Lilligant, who returned a leafy embrace. "I promise everything will be okay." Elise hugged her pokemon tighter. "I promise."

After returning Lilligant, Elise curled up at the base of a tree and cried. No cure. Once symptoms began to show, the pokemon was to be quarantined and destroyed. For the good of everyone. Elise couldn't do it, not to Lilligant. They'd been through too much for it to end like that. Lilligant wouldn't die alone, scared, with masked men forcing her into an incinerator. She'd do anything.

No solution came. Lilligant had always been at her side, and now she was alone, but she wouldn't give up, not while there was even the slightest hope. Elise felt at her hip for a pokeball. Janus, the only one she could talk to. She released him.

Janus' face fell when he looked at Elise and took a seat against her side. "You're hiding something."

"It's Lilligant." Elise sniffed and pulled Janus closer. Admitting it to someone else felt like giving up. "Her eyes, she's- They're-" She couldn't finish the thought, but she felt Janus stiffen in her arms.

"No."

More tears accompanied her tiny nod. Elise nestled her face into Janus' silky hair, between the two red fins that crowned his head. Lilligant, Janus, Tranquill, even the Charmeleon she'd won, they were a team. They overcame everything else so far; they would get through this.

Janus' telepathic voice drifted through Elise's mind like a whisper. "What are we doing out here? You know what you have to do."

"I can't, it's Lilligant. I won't do that to her."

"But you've seen what happens, and what happens to the trainers who don't listen to your laws. You explained to me why it had to be like that."

"That was different; that was before Lilligant, before she-" Elise shook, barely able to choke out the desperate plea. Not even Janus took her side.

"Why are we out here?" Janus asked. "Does anyone else know?"

"Maybe."

"You have to go back."

Elise released Janus and got to her feet, scrubbing her eyes with the back of a dirty hand. "I can't, and I won't. How could you condemn your own teammate?"

"But she's already-"

Elise didn't let him finish. "No. She'll be fine." She retrieved her pack and slung it about her shoulders. "I don't know if anyone is looking for us. We have to keep moving." Without another word, she headed deeper into the forest and away from where her trail would have led, had someone been tracking her C-Gear. Janus remained silent and a few steps behind.

Elise let herself wander a bit through the endless maze of trees. She had no real goal, no destination. She didn't want to meet anyone that may be looking for her; everyone that mattered to her was right here. Walking helped keep her mind off anything else, everything she didn't want to think about. Elise pushed on until the fading light began to make it too dangerous to continue.

"Can you and the others keep watch again for the night please? I know you walked with me all day, but-" She set down their pokeballs, all but Lilligant's.

"You should tell them."

"Not yet."

Janus frowned but nodded and released Charmeleon. They spoke briefly, and Janus joined Elise where she'd set out a simple layer of blankets to sleep on. He joined her on the ground. "I'm sorry."

Elise would have cried, but exhaustion overwhelmed her. Instead she hugged Janus close in a grasp for any comfort she could find, and fell asleep to dream of four black-eyed monsters she once called friends.

* * *

Bleary-eyed and exhausted, Elise forced herself to give up on the thought of getting a little more sleep. Janus lay beside her once again, and she pulled him to her chest.

Janus jerked awake. "What's wrong?" He tried to rise, but Elise held him to her chest.

"What if she doesn't get better?" She didn't get a response. "Please."

Janus' telepathic voice felt distant. "I'll do anything I can."

With sunlight already beaming through the breaks in the canopy above, Elise forced herself to get up. After returning Charmeleon and Tranquill, who had been keeping watch for the night, she unclasped Lilligant's ball again, rolling it in her hands.

"I'm going to return you for a bit, okay?"

"You aren't going to let her out are you?" Janus held himself very still, his eyes flicking between her and the pokeball in her hand.

"I want to see how's she's doing. She shouldn't be kept locked up like this. I never used to keep her in her ball for more than a few hours."

"Please don't."

Elise squeezed the ball in her hand. "Nothing has changed. You don't need to worry about me."

"At least- Promise you won't let her out alone. At least keep me out when you release Lilligant." Janus held very still in her arms.

Elise shook her head. "You'll be in danger."

"So will you. You know what happens when their eyes turn black."

"Lilligant would never hurt me, and there's no reason to put you in danger as well."

"Promise me, please. I'll be careful."

Elise hesitated but acquiesced. "Fine, but keep your distance." She took a few steps away and watched as Janus retreated, though he remained closer than he should have. She pressed the activator and watched Lilligant appear before her, a large smile on her face, and thick, black tendrils overtaking her eyes. More black than red.

"Janus, can you translate for me please?" Elise asked. She watched as Lilligant moved to one of the beams of sunlight and stretched out in it, the light playing across her vibrant green body and red flower. How many times had they spent enjoying a beautiful, cloudless day like this one?

"I can, but it will take a lot of concentration. I won't be able to concentrate on protect-"

"Just do it, please." Forcing a smile, she walked to where Lilligant spun in her small beam of sunlight. "How are you feeling?"

Lilligant stopped to look up at her. When she spoke, Elise could hear her pokemon speech, but also Janus' voice echoing the meaning she normally couldn't understand. "The sun is warm today."

Elise smiled. "Yeah, I thought you'd like it out here." She sat down in the sunlight, and Lilligant hopped into her lap. Elise wrapped her arms around her best friend like nothing had changed, because nothing had changed.

"Where are we headed to?" Lilligant asked.

"Nowhere in particular for now, we're taking it easy for a bit."

Lilligant had a soft, easy voice, an almost hypnotizing rhythm. "You seem tired."

"It's nothing."

"It's because of me isn't it?"

Elise squeezed her eyes shut but tried not to show how much she wanted to scream, the unfairness of it. They'd done nothing wrong. "No, I'm happy we can spend some time together out here." They sat in silence for a time, the warmth of the sun a welcome feeling against her grimy face. She could almost convince herself that they were back home, sprawled out in the back yard waiting for Mom to make lunch. Afterward, they'd walk along the brook and run through the shallow parts.

"You'd tell me if something felt wrong, right?" Elise asked after what felt like only minutes, thought the sun had visibly moved along its path in the sky. Lilligant nodded.

Elise stroked her pokemon's leafy head. "I'm going to return you for a bit, but I'll talk to you again soon, okay? I love you." She kissed her pokemon on the head, and the hug was forcefully returned. In a flash, Lilligant was locked away once more.

"Something felt wrong about her," Janus said and moved closer.

"What do you mean?"

"Her mind, something wasn't right."

Elise stood and snatched her pack from where it lay and threw it across her back. "We're leaving."

"Please Elise, you can't run from this."

"I'm not running. Lilligant will be okay. She seemed completely fine, and she said she didn't feel any different."

"Do you want to lose all of us?"

"I won't lose anyone." Elise stalked off, not checking to see if Janus followed.

Elise's mood fell with the sun, and by the time night came, she barely had the energy to roll out her blanket before curling up to sleep. What the hell was she doing? She couldn't get help for Lilligant out here, and they would run out of supplies eventually. But no one would help Lilligant anywhere else either.

She didn't speak to Janus, but released Charmeleon and Tranquill to keep watch. Her two pokemon fanned out, and Elise spread her blanket to try to cover up where roots broke through the ground. The leaves didn't do a very good job of softening the packed dirt and rocky soil. She also chose to skip dinner, instead taking out Lilligant's ball and curling up with the pokeball nestled against her chest.

Lilligant would make it through just fine.

* * *

Elise woke slowly, unwillingly. The branch digging into her ribs made her decision for her though. Sunlight barely lit the leaves above with a pale orange light. The air felt colder than yesterday's had.

Janus sat a short distance away from her and stared out into the surrounding trees. At least they'd made it another day without anyone catching up. Maybe no one even bothered following, considering her imagined fate, carrying around Lilligant.

"Did you sleep?" Elise asked.

Janus jerked around, his eyes sunken. He shook his head and stood, his skirt hanging limply around his waist like a miniature Gardevoir.

"You should eat something."

Janus' telepathy sounded muted. "So should you."

Somehow she managed a weak smile. Rummaging around in her bag came up with much less than she'd hoped. She called the others back, and they shared an insufficient breakfast. No one wasted the energy to complain about it though.

After eating she returned Tranquill and Charmeleon so they could get some sleep, and left Janus' ball on the blanket so he could decide. A short distance away, a wide tree with rough bark towered over the surrounding trees, out-of-place with the other, thinner plants all around. Elise walked around to the other side and sat against it, cradling Lilligant's pokeball in her hands.

Eight years. They'd barely been separated more than a few hours in that time. The outside of the pokeball looked as pristine as the day she'd received it. Elise brushed a hand lightly over the red and white surface.

Once their eyes turned completely black, they'd go insane and kill anything around them. No medication or vaccine existed. Once infected, incineration was the only cure. Four years had passed since the first incident, and not a single pokemon survived. The only blessing seemed that wild pokemon couldn't become infected, and the sickness didn't spread easily.

Janus walked around the tree. "They'll kill us when we're found, won't they?"

Elise whispered. "I tried to keep it from you and the others. None of that should have affected us."

"And when they catch up now?"

Elise gripped the pokeball. "Destroy us on the spot, I imagine. Less of a bother with no witnesses out here."

Janus's hands balled into tiny fists, but he threw himself at Elise and wrapped her arm in a hug. "So then why do it? If you knew, why risk yourself? I'm sure if you explained, you could make everything better."

Elise stroked Janus' green hair. "I can't. Even if they didn't arrest me, they still take all of you, infected or not." She sighed. Her life ended the moment she ran out of that pokemon center. This tree would be a good enough marker for her journey if it had to end here.

Elise continued to stroke her pokemon's head. "I'll release you and the others. That way when the league catches up to me, at least you'll be safe. If I wait here to slow them down, you'll have the chance to escape from all of this."

"No. I'm not leaving."

Elise pat him on the back. "You'll be fine. There's nothing left for you here." Her words didn't seem to calm the tiny psychic pokemon any. "Before I release you, could you let me speak with Lilligant one more time? Please?"

Janus glared up at her, but stalked a short distance away before locking eyes with her. He stood ready to fight, but waited, his graceful, feminine form oddly intimidating.

She hoped he'd understand. With one last stroke against the pokeball, she released Lilligant, a sad smile on her face. A strange calm filled her weary mind.

Lilligant stretched her leafy limbs, looking around briefly before turning to Elise. Elise gasped. Two teardrop eyes, blacker than polished onyx that drank in the faint sunlight across Lilligant's face. A pale yellow tinged once vibrant green arms.

Elise forced herself not to look away. "Hi, how do you feel?" Her pokemon said nothing, but smiled, twisting its face into a grin darkened by those unnatural eyes.

"Elise, something's not right."

She ignored Janus though and sat up from against the tree and reached out to Lilligant. Her heart raced, but she forced her fear away. This was her best friend, strongest pokemon, partner. She owed Lilligant her life for more than one close encounter.

Lilligant didn't say anything, but maintained her bizarre display of happiness.

"Elise."

Elise met Lilligant's outstretched arms and returned the embrace, like hugging a warm fern. The scent of flowering fields overwhelmed her. "Everything will be okay soon. Just a little longer."

"Elise!" Janus' mental shout felt like a blow to the head.

A slight tug pulled Elise, and an invisible blow ripped Lilligant from her arms. She fell forward. "What do you think you're doing?"

Janus ignored her though. He closed the distance faster than his small legs should let him, and he glared at Lilligant, who pulled herself from the dirt a few feet from where she had been standing.

"Are you okay?" Janus asked.

"I'm fine, what the hell are you doing?"

He pointed to her arm but kept his eyes fixed on Lilligant. Tiny creepers embedded themselves into her clothing, some beginning to wrap their way around her arms and legs. She hadn't felt them.

Lilligant hissed and began to dance. Side to side in graceful movements, then a lurching step, halting, jerking the leaves and flower that made up her body at stilted angles.

"Lilligant, Janus, stop. Please don't do this."

Janus leapt to Elise's side, and a translucent purple barrier appeared before them. Brilliant pink leaves erupted from Lilligant's body and shot towards the barrier.

"Janus!" Elise yanked his arm before he could move into the open. "You can't fight her."

Janus grunted as the first wave struck the barrier. "This attack will weaken her." He grit his teeth against the onslaught. Each leaf that struck the barrier exploded in a burst of blinding light, but the barrier held.

Lilligant swayed on her feet, her attack subsiding. The tree next to Elise and Janus bore large scars in its bark. Lilligant's black eyes fixed eagerly on her opponents.

Elise forced herself to move calmly, no sudden movements, instead of running to Lilligant's side. "Lilligant, sweetie, please stop. Janus didn't mean it." She stepped around the barrier and approached her teetering pokemon. But before she could react, a cloud of roiling, razor-sharp leaves surrounded Lilligant. They struck as one, a storm of green blades whipped into a fury by Lilligant's mastery of nature.

She didn't know which sliced first. Leaves tore into her body, some glancing off her arm or side, others digging directly into her pale skin. She screamed as she felt her skin being flayed by her best friend. He knees hit the ground, living knives cutting away her clothing and skin indiscriminately.

Elise gasped. "Lilligant." Dirt filled her mouth. She didn't remember falling. Pain, the metallic taste of blood. If Lilligant died, it would be out here, in the forest. Her eyes closed. The tempest whirling above a verdant dirge to lay her to rest.

* * *

A groaning, and pain. It hurt everywhere. Moving seemed to pull her skin apart.

"Elise? Elise? Please wake up." Janus' familiar telepathy forced order back into her swimming thoughts.

Elise opened her eyes and groaned. "I'm not dead?" The canopy above hid a bright day behind their wide leaves. Elise shuddered and tried to sit up. Pain made her reconsider. A blanket lay over her, though rough dirt and twigs dug into her from below, some as if they pressed against her skin directly.

Janus' face appeared before her. His cheeks shone faintly. "Elise!" He hugged her, his small body making her very aware of every cut he pressed against. The scent of blood hung in the air.

"What happened?" Elise asked, her voice a dry rasp.

Fresh tears fell from Janus' face. "I did everything I could think of but I didn't know what to do. You were bleeding and wouldn't wake up and didn't respond when I called your name. You just lay there on the ground for hours, and I tried to move you but I couldn't and I covered you up but you wouldn't stop bleeding."

"Calm down." The rush of words made her feel dizzy, and she brought a hand out from underneath the blanket to pat Janus on the head. Rust-colored streaks covered what she could see of her hand and arm. "Where's Lilligant?"

"We were able to stop her, but- Please don't die Elise. Promise."

She grit her teeth and stroked Janus' hair. Every movement hurt, and she could feel a trickle of warmth running down her ribs. "I'm going to need your help. The first aid kit in my bag. And water." She could hear the patter of Janus' feet retreating and then returning a short time later. Turning her neck more than an inch either way made her eyes water.

"I didn't know what to do with the things inside. I'm sorry." He placed the kit next to her head and pushed the water into her hand.

"It's okay." She choked down a few sips of water before attempting to sit up. As she pushed off the blankets, she found that Lilligant's attack reduced her clothing to rags. Blood stained the sad remnants of her shirt that hung about her. Stifling a cry, she let the blanket fall and sagged back against the ground. A quick death would have been a blessing.

"I need you to clean some of these. And there should be pain killers. Little white pills in one of those bottles. It should rattle." Each breath took more effort than the last. She felt drained, and the air felt chilly without the blanket over her. She heard rattling beside her.

Janus handed her a few of the pills and she choked them down with a little more water. "Were you hurt at all?" she asked.

Janus shook his head.

"You should have left us. You could be long gone by now, and I'm in no shape to travel anymore."

"I told you I wasn't leaving." He didn't look at her, instead staring out into the surrounding forest.

The painkillers weren't kicking in nearly fast enough. She lay on her back, eyes shut. Inhale, cringe, exhale in relief, and prepare for the next one. "The others, they're okay as well?"

Janus nodded. He still refused to look at her, and his hands continuously pulled at the edges of his skirt. She tapped him on the shoulder, and he jumped.

"There's a bottle of liquid in the kit. It's a disinfectant. Could you clean some of these deeper cuts? I-I don't think I have it in me." A lightness began to drift through her, her mind growing fuzzy. Such a welcome feeling. Too many pills after losing so much blood. Her eyelids felt heavy. "Thanks," she mumbled, and closed her eyes.

* * *

Light still shone down from above when Elise woke. Different day, or the same? The pain hadn't gone anywhere. A lump of warmth rest against her side with Janus' smooth skin covering some of the tears in her shirt.

She brushed a hand through his hair. "Janus."

Janus jerked awake and sat up quickly. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I uh, are you feeling better?"

Hesitantly, she pushed herself up with little more than a wince. "I guess so." Pain may have made her overestimate her injuries, and many of the cuts looked bad but weren't deep. Plenty of blood stained her already over-worn clothing.

What were once fine traveling clothes now offered little warmth or cover. She smiled when she noticed Janus between staring at her and looking away. She pulled the ruined shirt off and smiled at the color that crept into her pokemon's cheeks, always an odd one.

With stiff movements she pulled her pack closer and dug out a fresh shirt. "Can I see Lilligant's ball?" she asked, but Janus didn't reply. "I'm not going to let her out. I just want to see her." She grunted as the shirt snagged on some of the scabs.

Janus spoke softly into her mind. "We couldn't return her to her ball."

"What do you mean? Where is she?"

"Charmeleon- He- We didn't have a choice."

"Janus."

"She would have killed all of us."

"Where is she?"

Without taking his eyes off the ground, Janus began to walk, and she followed him, legs stiff and torn skin pulling. Despite her fatigue, her heart raced, eyes darting around in search of her friend.

Janus led her to a small patch of blackened earth. "I'm sorry."

Elise stumbled and fell to her knees before the small pile of char. "What did you do?" she choked out, eyes wide.

"I'm sorry. There was nothing we could-"

Elise couldn't keep the animosity from her voice. "Go away."

"Please, we tried-"

"Leave!" Tears slid down her face.

Nothing remained, nothing that resembled her best friend. Just black, like her eyes had been. The faint smell of char still lingered, a perversion of Lilligant's sweet floral scent. "Why?" Lilligant didn't deserve to die, and she had done nothing to help.

Her idiotic plan to run off into the woods only ensured her other pokemon's deaths as well as Lilligant's. Nothing could have saved Lilligant, and her actions only made her best friend's remaining time miserable. She should have said a proper goodbye, done the right thing instead of selfishly trying to fool herself.

Elise almost hoped that League Enforcement caught up with her right then. She didn't deserve her trainer card, let alone pokemon. The faint breeze scattered a little more of Lilligant's ashes. With a trembling hand, she brushed a finger through the powdery remains, the black and gray soot staining her fingers. Tears splashed to the ground, but nothing would ever grow from the tainted char.

The sun had gone down by the time Elise returned to where she'd left Janus. She didn't speak to him, but began to pack up the blanket, leaving her shredded clothing where it lay. Pain made her grimace, but she otherwise ignored it, anger and grief forcing her onward despite her body's warnings.

Her fingers wrapped around Charmeleon's ball. Touching it felt like it should burn her skin. The desire to chuck it into the forest gripped her, but she couldn't blame him no matter how much she wanted to. She squeezed the ball briefly, but placed it back into her bag. Maybe she'd trade him away, if she ever returned to town. She could always release him.

Janus peaked around the trunk of a tree where he'd been trying to stay out of sight. "It's pretty dark already."

"Then stay here if you want," she snapped and lifted her pack across her shoulders.

"I-". He never finished the whispered beginning.

They walked. Not far, really. After half an hour Elise could barely make out what lay before her, and she cursed a number of times after bumping into tree branches or stubbing her toe on a rock. She heard a small sniffle from Janus on occasion, but he didn't speak, and she had nothing to say to him.

She chose a spot at random to stop, and once again dug out her blanket to wrap around her. The stench of blood still clung to the fabric, but she had nothing else, and the nights were chilly. She curled up against a tree trunk and pretended to sleep without a word to Janus.

* * *

Elise considered leaving without waking Janus, but she couldn't do it. Not only because Janus was the only one she had left in the world who would speak to her, but because he didn't deserve it. Her friend, no matter what.

She placed a hand against Janus' back where he'd huddled up for the night on the ground, not far from where she'd slept. "We're leaving." The pair of them continued into the forest with no destination in mind.

Dusk crept along prematurely in the dense forest, and lengthening shadows made each step require more and more concentration. They couldn't keep on much longer, but Elise couldn't bring herself to stop moving. She no longer had any idea what direction she headed, only that there was no point in going back.

Janus' timid psychic voice intruded upon her thoughts. "Elise? I'm sorry, but could we stop please? I-I don't think I feel good."

Elise turned but didn't say anything as she knelt before her pokemon, her only remaining friend. As she brushed aside his hair to check his forehead, she looked into Janus' wide eyes. In the corner, tiny black filaments reached towards his beautiful crimson iris.

She stumbled back. "No. Dammit Janus no!" Body shaking, she stood. Her pack cracked against the trunk of a tree, breaking open at the force of her throw. She turned away from her pokemon's tear-filled eyes.

"I'll be okay, right?"

She couldn't do it. Not again, not hearing the terror in Janus' voice. "Dammit," she choked out and ran towards the shadowed maze of trees.

"Elise? Please don't leave me! Elise?"

A familiar, wan light followed Elise's retreat into the tangle of trees. She didn't look back to watch his transformation, but instead ran harder, ignoring the clawing branches, tears stinging the slice on her cheek. A steep incline halted her, and she didn't have the energy to climb the rocky slope. Instead she let herself sag to the ground and put her back to a tree.

What had happened to her? She'd done all this because she couldn't abandon Lilligant. And Janus just found out he's about to die. It didn't matter how she felt about it. Punishment, and a second chance. She pushed herself from the ground and walked back.

Elise heard his quiet sniffling first, and she tried to soften her voice. "Janus? I'm sorry, I just- It's been a hard few days, please forgive me."

Almost as tall as she, Janus stood, a wide, flowing gown covered his elegant body. He kept his eyes on the ground. "Just keep me in my ball."

"No." Elise walked to him and lifted his chin with a grimy hand. "The form suits you." Tears welled up in her eyes once more, and she pulled him into a tight embrace. "I'm so sorry, for everything that's happened. But I'm done running, we'll stay here for a few days."

The despair in Janus' telepathy felt like a physical weight in her mind. "You know what will happen."

She tried to make soothing sounds in his ear and calm his trembling body. "We can stay here, walk around, anything you'd like. I won't make the same mistakes again. I'll be right here, until the end."

"And when I lose my mind?" Tiny claws extended, his grip tightening on Elise.

"Then it will all be over."

Janus tried to pull away, but Elise held him tight. "I'll kill you. I won't let myself do that."

"It's not your fault. It won't be your fault." A warm dampness spread from where Janus' face pressed against her shoulder. She guided him down so they could sit. "We get one more shot, so let's not spend it in fear again, okay?"

"No, you should-"

"Janus. I haven't given you a command in over a year. Don't make me start now." Brave words, and maybe a bit forced, but Janus quieted in her arms for a moment. An almost peaceful dusk surrounded them.

"Remember your first evolution? I won't be able to get you anything special this time, but we can spend all day together tomorrow. Every day." She stroked his hair gently.

Janus raised his head, the corruption seeping into his eyes briefly forgotten. "I'm sorry," he whispered with his mind, and pressed his lips to Elise's.


End file.
